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Abstract

Measuring the amount of CO2 exiting headwater streams through degassing could play an important role in environmental chemistry. The objective of this project was to develop a method to measure CO2 flux from headwater streams such as those at the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research Site and Biological Station (Konza), and to determine the effects of stream morphology and turbulence that can affect CO2 degassing. The project comprised an in-depth critical review of literature on the topic of measuring degassing in small streams, as well as a series of experiments that developed and tested methods of quantifying the flux of CO2 from a simulated stream. The experiments evaluated the effectiveness of multiple floating chamber designs to measure CO2 degassing in flowing water at a range of water velocities and dissolved CO2 concentrations. Both the literature review and experiments suggested that the floating chamber is viable method for use in headwater streams.